Monday, August 07, 2006

Five Postgame Takes

1. To maintain your sanity, repeat after me: It’s only August 6. Our first team looked a bit disjointed, McNabb and company looked sharp. I wish it was the other way around, but it’s only August 6. We might want to resume training camp with some basic tackling drills. Nice interception and runback, nice rocket of a TD by Brooks.

2. Rob “Caveman” Ryan looks like he’s been eating raw meat and sleeping on sharp sticks for the past six months. That’s a good sign. I’m ready to put a helmet on him. I’ll be he could tackle.

3. I think we got a window into Art Shell’s commitment to the run tonight. Unlike Norv Turner, he won’t waffle at the first sign of ground trouble. That said, can we minimize LaMont Jordan’s carries in August? The risk of injury to Jordan freaks me out. Fargas just seems to lack instinct and cutting ability. He Hate Me is cool, but he sure can’t carry this team.

4. I’ll resist the urge to make snap judgments on the QB position at this point. Brooks will find his groove. Walter wasn’t lacking time in the pocket, but he still seemed jumpy and uncertain. Preseason will be good for him.

5. John Madden has seen, accomplished and experienced a hell of a lot in his larger-than-life life. So it was quite something to hear him describe his Hall of Fame weekend with such pure wonderment and irrepressible joy during the broadcast. Good for him.

16 Comments:

Brayton looked revved and ready to step it up; plays to the whistle will make playsIrons looks like a force; knocked a defender on his ass with one IronWashington almost ran one backJano looked goodMoss had a nice block; i'm tired of hearing crap about this guy; he leads by example and is a team player.

Gallery looked bad; he gave up a sac early, got outplayed and had a false startOur whole line got worked and manhandled at times

Here's something subtle I noticed (and liked). When the QBs came off the field for a timeout, Shell dealt with them. In his previous incarnation, Shell would often stand with his arms crossed while Robiskie or White or Walsh or whoever talked to the QBs. Now Walsh is in the booth and it looks like Shell has learned that the head coach has to be the central figure on the sidelines. I'm sure the assistants will get involved from time to time, and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I like it.

Game #1-Thank God it's only preseason!I guess this is why he's 2nd/3rd string, but dude, #78 Chad Slaughter was getting schooled by Philly's DE Juqua Thomas in the 3rd and 4th Quarters. He gave up two easy sacks on Tui, from a basic outside-in bullrush. Good Lord, it appeared my grandmother could've gotten around this guy!Tui looked worse than Walters too. The comment was made that Walters looked jumpy, and never planted his feet (hence why he was throwing high, and over his receivers heads). I expected that though, from a guy who hasn't really played. So it was ok with me, because the more he does play, the more he's going to settle down. He looked good!Tui, on the other hand, with all of his experience looked more jumpy that Walters did. He had 2 chances within the Red Zone for 7 easy points, and couldn't punch it in. We lost 3 on one of them because of a botched hold. It wasn't a pretty game, or a pretty W. Our second and third string defense looked good. Ryan Riddle looked like a freaking animal! I say we put him with the first stringers and see what he can do.All-in-all, I'm thankful we have 5 preseason games in all, with 4 left. I'm looking for some major improvements as we progress toward the regular season. I wasn't impressed by either side of the ball yesterday from our starters, but I think we will find our rhythm.

I agree on all the above points. Apparently, Art and Jackie have more work to do on this o-line than they may have thought. I was particularly concerned with the amount of ease that the Philly 1st string offense blew through the Raiders 1st string defense to open the game. Again, this is only game one of the preseason...but still.

As for Madden, I can make a case that he may be one of the most important figures in the history of the NFL. Between his HOF track record as a head coach, his nearly thirty years as a prominent broadcaster and nearly twenty years of sponsoring (and playing a significant part in the strategic brains behind) EA Sports Madden Football, Madden's one of the few people...if not only person...who's been a significant NFL face for 40 years. And with the success of the "Madden" line of games, he'll ensure that his name will be mentioned fondly decades from now as people recall their youth...assuming that there *won't* be a Madden '43 on the PS31 by then.

But the 1st team looked soft and undisciplined. We were getting pushed around on the offensive & defensive line. Gallery is going to give me a stroke. He is commiting penalties and does not seem to have an answer for speed.

Jordan looked nice, but we really need to address the backup position. I dont want He Hate Me anywhere near the field after August.

I think Brooks will be better once he can force passes to Moss all game.

Realistically this team is going to be inching forward gradually over the course of the entire season not just preseason.

We've got a new coach, lots of new and young players (especially on D), position changes in the mix too and all that takes time. The roster isn't a disaster but isn't exactly wall-to-wall premium talent. It's going to take time for it to come together.

I think we're 8-8 and teams are going to want to play us early as we'll get better in the back end of the season.

We're building and next year we'll get winning football.

OK that's the me trying to stay calm.

But it isn't working. We SUCKED our first team unit vs Eagles first units got destroyed in every area of the game.

It was painful and embaressing and all too familiar. Dear God I hope we improve or this season is going to be grim indeed.

Aaron Brooks connecting with Courtney Alexander was definitely a highlight for me. We under utilized our TE's last season, and I get it's Brooks zipped the ball right to him. I thought we were soft in the trenches, both defensively and offensively. I disagree with anyone who thought Fargas looked good. He was useful as a dump guy, making himself available as a last option for Walter. Still, he had trouble getting out of the backfield. I think we all need too take another look at GRANT IRONS. He looked impressive.

Those turnover drills at training camp appear to be paying dividends. Janikowski's alarm clock appears to have gone off.

Shell says that our starters just weren't physical enough on Sunday, which he characterized as a carryover (hangover) from last year. I like the fact that he's so vocally committed to this concept. You'd think that aggressive, physical play would be second nature to starting linemen. I'll sure be glad when we've finally squeezed the last vestiges of the Norv Turner era out of the team's system.